A Java Developer's Quiz

By Janice J. Heiss, February 2009  
Duke

For this quiz, SDN staff author Janice J. Heiss surveyed past interviews with leading Java developers in search of questions that might challenge, inform, entertain, amuse, and provoke you. The questions aspire to reflect both the intellectual curiosity and spirit of fun to be found in the Java community. We hope you enjoy taking this quiz.

Choose the best answer for each question, then click Submit to see how you scored.

 
  1. 1. What noted Java developer at his Ph.D. defense answered a planted question with a rap song backed by a recorded rhythm track on a hidden tape recorder?  
     A. James Gosling
     B. Guy Steele
     C. Joshua Bloch
     D. Greg Papadopoulos
     E. Heinz Kabutz
     
  2. True or false: It is preferable to write
      
    List dogs = new ArrayList();
     
    instead of
      
    List<Dog> dogs = new ArrayList<Dog>();
     
    because raw types enable developers to avoid needless verbiage.  
     A. True
     B. False
     
  3. Who agrees with the idea that developers should write "dumb code," meaning straightforward, clean code that follows the most obvious object-oriented principles, in order to get the best compiler optimization -- and that clever, hacked-up, bit-banging code will get poorer results?
     A. Brian Goetz
     B. Heinz Kabutz
     C. Cay Horstmann
     D. Kirk Pepperdine
     E. All of the above
     F. None of the above
     
  4. Fill in the blank: Joshua Bloch says that the strangest thing about the Java platform is __________.
     A. Poor Unicode support.
     B. java.lang.Cloneable does not contain clone() method.
     C. The byte type is signed.
     D. The creators of the Java programming language modeled the syntax after C and C++.
     E. java.io.InputStream is an abstract class and not an interface.
     
  5. Who strongly believes in the importance of unit testing and says that developers should engage in it?
     A. Heinz Kabutz
     B. Cay Horstmann
     C. Joshua Bloch
     D. All of the above
     E. None of the above
     F. A and C
     G. B and C
     H. A and B
     
  6. Qusay Mahmoud remarked that "Today's generation of students is becoming known as Generation C." What does "C" stand for?
     A. Create, complete, and collect
     B. Creativity, curiosity, and career
     C. Content, cash, choice, and control
     D. Compete, confer, and collect
     
  7. Fill in the blank: Computer science professors Qusay Mahmoud and Cay Horstmann agree that the biggest mistake made by teachers of computer science is __________.
     A. Overwhelming students with too much code complexity too early
     B. Lecturing too much
     C. Failing to educate students in the use of tools
     D. Failing to encourage individual creativity and initiative
     
  8. Which of the following is not a joke from Chet Haase's humor blog:
     A. What do you call it when a chip manufacturer loses money?
    A cash miss.
     B. What do you call someone who has to use a dull web application?
    Bored to tiers.
     C. What does a hungry vegetarian say?
    "I´m so hungry, I could eat a tree."
     

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